28 June 2017

News Story: N. Korea is clearly advancing H-bomb development - Hecker

SEOUL, June 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea clearly has the ability to produce tritium internally, a basic element for making hydrogen bombs, although the country has yet to weaponize it, an American nuclear expert said Tuesday.

"The evidence is quite clear that North Korea is able to produce tritium, which is necessary for a hydrogen bomb to create fusion. So you need tritium when you are going to have hydrogen bombs," Siegfried Hecker, a professor at Standford University, told a group of journalists here.

During his 2010 trip to North Korea, he was allowed to take a look into the country's uranium-enrichment facility in Yongbyon.

North Korea claimed it used a hydrogen bomb when it conducted its fourth nuclear test in January last year, although it has not been proven.